EMPOWER YOUTH, WOMEN FOR BETTER AFRICA, ADVISES AU COMMISSION

The African Union (AU) Commission has called on African parliamentarians to empower the continent’s youth and women to realize a better Africa.

Greater emphasis on the young demographic base of the continent is vital in realizing Africa’s Agenda 2030, remarked AU Commissioner for Social Affairs, Dr. Mustapha Kaloko, when he addressed a conference on “Enhancing the Role of Parliamentarians in the Inter-linkage between Population Issues and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — Part II” held at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa Wednesday.

“Now is crucial time to address the young, women and children issues. We have to empower the youth and women to bring fruitful change in our continent. We have to cooperate with our Asian parliamentarians in this sector,” he stated.

Dr. Mustafa also said African governments had an obligation to ensure transparency, accountability and good governance to address the basic needs of their citizens. “We have to stand together to tackle global problems such as migration, drought, climate change and terrorism,” he said.

The Speaker of Ethiopia’s House of People’s Representatives (HPR), Abadula Gemeda, said Ethiopia had been implementing Agenda 2030 and had achieved a lot in the fields of health and gender balance.

Abadula said the country had registered significant development in terms of child mortality rate, women empowerment and youth capacity building.

Drawing valuable experiences from the world’s members of parliaments, Ethiopia would continue implementing Agenda 2030 and scale up best practices, the Speaker pledged